Lopresti: Ohio State's bowl ban out of whack

Nov. 26, 2012
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Former Ohio State Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel was carried around the field Saturday by players from his 2002 national championship team before the current team went out and completed an undefeated season that won't end in a bowl game because of Tressel's transgressions that led to a bowl ban. / Greg Bartram, US Presswire

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

To begin, let's put in parenthesis all the violations the 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes are known to have committed, to have their season end two days after Thanksgiving.

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The case is a tad thin, is it not?

I have not come today dressed in scarlet and gray, humming Carmen Ohio. Ohio State deserved a good whacking for what went on the last years of the Jim Tressel regime.

But Ohio State is not the issue. The basic concept of fairness is the issue.

Bowl bans are the issue. They have been the punishment of choice for eons for the NCAA, and why not? Easy to assess. Easy to understand. And they hurt.

But are they right? Not most of the time. Not this time.

The Kansas State Wildcats are out of the national championship game because they fell apart against Baylor.

The Oregon Ducks are out because they couldn't score against Stanford.

Ohio State is out because a bunch of guys not around anymore once traded jerseys for tattoos.

True, it was impossible not to be struck by the lunacy of the moment at the Michigan game, when Tressel was lifted upon the shoulders of the 2002 team and cheered thunderously by the masses. This, while on the field, the current players fought to finish an unbeaten season leading to nowhere, forced to atone for the transgressions on Tressel's watch.

Clearly, they still struggle with perspective in the stands in Columbus, especially concerning guys who beat Michigan.

Only, bowl bans are not the answer.

Invariably, they leave the guilty unscathed (as they're long gone). Invariably, they hit hardest those who are blameless. These Ohio State seniors will never have a chance again to play in a bowl game, and so far as we know, there is not an arm in the bunch adorned with a dirty tattoo.

"Nobody that did anything is here anymore,'' linebacker Ryan Shazier said after the Michigan game. "It's tough to see the seniors go out like this.''

Same at Penn State. There were horrible crimes and alleged staggering official misconduct. But none of it by current Nittany Lions, or future Nittany Lions. Only, they must pay. This year, next year, four years in all.

Bowl bans sound good. They're scary enough. Miami self-imposed this season, rather than risk something worse later. But the bans carry an unsettling contradiction. Does not something seem amiss, when those here now are held accountable for those who came before?

The NCAA once banned television appearances, but shelved that rather than penalize innocent opponents. But innocents get penalized by bowl bans, too.

Then again, it is a jungle out there, and someone has to be the sheriff. The NCAA needs muscle, and the conundrum is how best to flex it when the violations begin to stack up.

Start with the All-American way.

Take their money. Lots of it.

Notorious for their eternal love of a few dollars more, universities would be aghast at major fines.

Cut scholarships. It's a valid penalty.

And make sure the adults in charge get punished. A coach that leads his school into scandal should not be working again in college sport for years. And years. The guy who has fled or been fired, who aided and abetted or at least looked the other way, is the one who deserves the ban.

But once yesterday is settled, today should start at zero. The new coaches, the current players who have done nothing, what they earn, they keep.

Maybe their cause will be hurt by scholarship cuts. Maybe the fines mean the budget isn't what it used to be. They have to deal with that. They choose to be a part of a program with past shadows.

But if they overcome everything and go 12-0, they should have their shot at the prize. If those who stay with Penn State manage to finish 10-2 in 2014, ignoring every prediction of doom, they should not be denied their reward, because of what someone else did when they were in middle school.

What justice is served, and what right wronged, by enforcing the law against those who never broke it?